IQ84 by Murakami, Haruki; Rubin, Jay (Translator); Gabriel, Philip (Translator), Knopf; First Edition edition (October 25, 2011)I want to like IQ84. It is chilling and mysterious. There is a lady assassin in love with a man who is a mathematician by day and a fiction writer by night. There are twists and turns of a parallel universe which keep the lovers apart. It has rightful vengeance and a clever detective. But for me, it ended with a fizzle of huhs.
The two main characters, Aomame the assassin and Tengo the writer/mathematician alternate narrating the details of a their long lost love and trying to find each other in a parallel universe by a religious cult and little three centimeter people who channel back and forth between worlds through passageways of dead dogs and lambs. Huh? Make sense yet? No, and unfortunately the book doesn’t try to make sense out of all the fantastical elements that are spun into the plot. And, that is too bad because these odd mystifying elements are, satisfyingly curious. In the beginning, you eagerly follow along the fantastic plot that strings fascinating vignettes into one large convoluted plot web. Who and what are these little people and why did they snatch away a zombie girl from a rescue house? Who is the ugly detective with looks so gross and that he can’t risk undercover work because everyone remembers his ugliness. How can the religious cult leader’s runaway daughter be a conduit for the star crossed lovers? Or, is she human or just a zombie copy of what she was. Lost yet? Well, now you know how I felt at the end of the book- puzzled and annoyed at reading 1,200 pages of murky plotting.
Anyway, I did love the small vignettes of the different characters lives: Aomome, the diligent assassin working to right the wrongs of the world… Tengo’s weekly visit to his father’s deathbed in a cat filled town and many more few page scenes that kept me curious. But in the end, all the terrific scenes just sputtered out.
Reviewer’s note—IQ84 is the first book I’ve read by Haruki Murakami and I’ve been told that some of his other works are better, much better.
I read a book of short stories by this author and thought for awhile I would not get through them but then really started liking them. I've now read 3 books but not this one yet. He is certainly someone you have to get used to, I think. This one is just too big to start with. Try "The elephant vanishes" if you are still interested at all. The audio of this book is good too.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll check out the elephant vanishes. I certainly liked moments of IQ84 but it didn't come together v. well.
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